1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that displays an image of a photographing target, an image processing method, an image processing system, and a computer readable program storing memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, the image diagnosis is widely performed to detect a lesioned part or check the condition of a disease based on a captured image of a tested object.
The image diagnosis is employable to perform a detailed analysis based on comparison between images obtained by a plurality of different imaging apparatuses. For example, an eye doctor performs diagnosis based on an image obtained by an imaging apparatus, such as a fundus camera, a scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO), or an optical coherence tomography (OCT).
In general, the fundus camera can obtain a color image of an eyeground surface. The scanning laser ophthalmoscope can obtain a high-resolution image of an eyeground surface and an internal retina structure. The optical coherence tomography can obtain a retinal tomography image. Using a plurality of types of images obtainable from these imaging apparatuses enables a user to perform a detailed and accurate diagnosis on a surface of an eyeground and an internal structure thereof.
As an example technique capable of assisting such a medical diagnosis, a conventional technique discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,794,083 can display a projection image of a group of tomography images captured by the OCT in such a way as to be superimposed on an eyeground image. Further, the conventional technique discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,794,083 is capable of displaying structure information, such as a blood vessel area extracted from an OCT image, superimposed on an eyeground image.
Further, a conventional technique discussed in US2010/0189334 is capable of displaying a blood vessel extracted from an OCT image and a blood vessel extracted from an eyeground image.
However, a structure obtained from an OCT image and a structure obtained from an eyeground image (or an SLO image) are generally different from each other in extraction accuracy. Therefore, it is unable to indicate extraction reliability to a user by simply displaying an extracted structure.